Yes Plus: The Art of Living

10:31 pm and 9^th Feb 2011 Day 1

Today, I woke up at 1 pm. We were having our class of Marketing management at 2. That’s why I woke up at 1. Believe me, I was feeling so tired from last few days just after I woke up. Its too hard to wake up and the after lunch time was ultimate these days. Me and my room partner slept after lunch from the last few days although we haven’t on Tuesday. Afternoon sleep was really ultimate and very sweet, as soon as we had our lunch, came back to room and sit on bed, we fall asleep. Perhaps too much lunch was the reason but I feel strongly that there is something in air or as we have reduced our smoking these days, that can be another reason. When we woke, we daily felt regret, why we are wasting so much of time. The schedule was so disturbing these days, at the late night, energy levels are high and inverse during the day time.

But today, as I woke up, got a sms that the class was shifted at 3.30. So, after having my lunch, I went back to my room. I was quite excited about the course Yes + which was going to start from today. I have lot of things to do before that. SO, I finished my work including the one pending from last 6 months i.e. to change my mobile number for internet banking. There was a long procedure for that. After couriering the form, I went to mess and opted for something light as at 6 pm, after 1 hour , we were having our session. I took a bath just before the session.

Finally, the session was started and 1 guy and girl were sitting on the chair in front of us and we all were sitting on the mat laid on the floor. Ambience was nice, we were distributed batches having our name. A very slow chanting sound was played, it was very soothing and something like mantra. The girl and boy was of our age. Girl was dressed in red and was really short around 5 ft. She was looking very sober, I heard her voice first when I enter in the hall. She was speaking very fluently. After we all settled around 40 in number, they began an introductory session. The very first thing he told us about was the Rules of the Course. They were very shocking. We were asked to suspend smoking, drinking, aerated drinks and non veg. Furthermore, he told us about the fine thing if anybody comes late. If anybody comes late by more than 30 minutes, he was asked to leave politely. The teacher told us from his last experiences, that the only way to make the students come on time and not on Indian standard time was to impose a fine. Money can do things which no amount of threats and strictness can do. 

After all the rules was finalized, he asked everybody to stand up first and then said, all those who are agreed with rules can sit and rest can go. Everybody sits again. It was kind of funny thing but new. Both the teachers were great in their energy levels and were quite enthusiastic. After this, they introduce us their new ways of introducing with people. Two people need to be introduced, first hold hand each other’s hand, then repeat the statement, “I am this and I belong to you “. HAha, weird way of introducing but still it was fun and innovative..

Little later, batch was divided in groups of 5 each and 3 volunteers were called. Puzzle was given to every group to solve. It was just simple mathematics puzzle and the volunteers were just called to get a role in the puzzle like suppose he owns the grocery store . After the discussion, he brings some insights. The very first thing he said was answer was not important. Everybody was wondering for the answer and he said answer was not important at all. First thing he said was as soon as somebody become sure of his answer, he stopped listening to others. That’s happen to us in our daily life also. And how sometimes the simple things become complex when given as a team work. Everything was just a fish market what he said and it was actually like that. That how he relate to the rat race of today. Quite interesting and fascinating way of putting simple things. After this session, the lady told us about three types of listening: intellectual listening when along with listening, constant dialogues are taking place in mind. Another was emotional listening where we just listen with our whole heart and after that we forgot. It was exactly how we listen to music. The third was prayerful when we first listen and then analyze. They shared some more insights with us. 

The next task was that they made a group of 2 classifying one with longer nose A and another one B. Then they asked to tell each other what you actually want out of life, then your worries and at last expectation from this course. It was nice one to one exercise making us more clear about ourselves. 

After that, they told us about some sitting asanas and pranayamas. And we practiced this for around 1 hour. The whole focus was to control the mind using breath. When mind can change the way we take breath, then why cant breath can control our mind. Nice philosophy. He told us to close our eyes and think about future, then past and then future again . This cycle was goes for 4,5 times until we realized that this is what the stress is called. HE also told us one must live in the present moment. After the pranayamas series which was very tough sitting in varjasana. He told us about the chanting. How soothing it is. Everytime we open our eyes, we find ourselves more awake and fresh. There was some power in these yogas. 

At last, he told us about the power of reciting ohm Or om. He said OM consists of three sounds i.e. aa,uu, mm .He asked to recite each of these sounds and find out there source or at what part actually they are causing vibrations. Aa was found at stomach, uu at chest and the mm on the face. 

Then he told us about the three parts

• Stomach: creator related to brahma who has created the world
• Chest : maintenance of the system which is related to vishnu
• Face: transformation related to shiva

And then he talk about how these 3 energies are different and how we can find the dominating one in ours and choose the career accordingly. Although its too late for us but we can judge people based on their dominating one and deal with them according to one. It is said the guru is one who masters all these energies. And generally, one of the energy type is dominating in every individual and we should work on the other two. This is something new to me. But I was convinced enough that these things really work.

That’s about my Day1 in yes plus. I will come back tomorrow with some new insights.